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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 30-Oct-2025 22:38:48 JST Paul Cantrell

   omg, THIS

   I was bordering on apoplectic when I first heard about K-12 teachers forbidding students from using Wikipedia but then teaching them to use LLMs.

   https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-its-me-wikipedia-and-i-am-ready-for-your-apology

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 30-Oct-2025 23:00:26 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I recently found myself comparing the articles about the Louisiana Purchase on Britannica (that flag-bearer of acceptability in K-12 education) and Wikipedia (still forbidden in many schools). It was…illuminating.

     The Britannica is better written. It flows well. It is approachable. It proceeds from broad overview to coherent detail in a way that helps meet the reader where they’re at. The coherent editorial oversight shows.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 30-Oct-2025 23:01:00 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The Wikipedia article is pretty good, but it’s overwhelming. It flows poorly. It lurches from big picture to over-specific details in a way that makes it hard to approach the article if you don’t already know the material.

     The cacophony of voices behind it, though well-synthesized, still shows.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 30-Oct-2025 23:08:46 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The Wikipedia article also includes this sentence in its opening paragraph:

     ❝However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the preemptive right to obtain Indian lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.❞

     Britannica has nothing like that. It discusses the Louisiana Purchase without a single mention that the indigenous people of North America even exist.

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   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 31-Oct-2025 01:38:07 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Solitha

     @solitha
     Even more fundamentally — because genuine care about citations is perfunctory or nonexistent in practice until college, or •maybe• a very fastidious high school class — Wikipedia can be a darned good as a starting point, or for a quick “usually not too wrong” answer.

     Student do need to learn that you can’t take Wikipedia or any other source (primary or secondary) as complete truth. They also need to learn how to work with provisional knowledge: “Look, not 100% confident, but this Wikipedia article that challenges what I thought means it’s •probably• me that’s wrong.”

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     Solitha (solitha@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 31-Oct-2025 01:38:08 JST Solitha

     in reply to

     @inthehands I think they need to be clear that *using* Wikipedia is fine, but it should never be a *citation*.

     Wikipedia is a collation of sources, all of which are fair game.